Technically Speaking

Insider threats and the misuse of data stored in the cloud has long been a concern for agency and IT leaders. But what remains clear, according to a new survey by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), is that there is clear lack of procedure for dealing with these instances in cloud computing.

Security has become one of the biggest IT challenges in the last 20 years. Regulations, threats, and the many different ways in which adversaries can gain access to sensitive network infrastructures, particularly within the Department of Defense (DoD), have spurred cyber priorities and strategic goals. These include defending the DoD information network, securing DoD data, and mitigating risks to DoD missions (Strategic Goal II) while being prepared to defend the U.S.

Cybersecurity, or lack thereof, was a hallmark of the 2016 election season. With Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, being chief among the targets of cyber attackers. In March of this year, Podesta fell victim to the oldest trick in the book – phishing – which led to the subsequent hacking and Wikileaks-led disclosure of hundreds of thousands of emails.

Enterprise architectures have certainly evolved from flat file networks to today’s highly complex network, filled with billions of connect devices and applications—a phenomena we know as the Internet of Things (IOT). What hasn’t changed, however, is the ever-increasing need for bandwidth. In fact, as complexity increases so does the demand for more bandwidth, making this a core priority for most federal IT pros.

2016 is/was the year Gartner predicted that DevOps would go mainstream. But a big challenge for government IT operations is how teams can modernize software development while still operating their traditional apps and infrastructure. After all, according to federal CIO Tony Scott, the U.S. government spends 76% of its $88 billion IT budget on operating and maintaining legacy technologies – that’s three times what is spent on modern systems.

Earlier this year we blogged about the disconnect between building owners and AEC firms who work in BIM. Most AEC firms work in BIM, but most owners don’t use BIM.